Greenpeace blasts climate declaration as 'weak and inadequate'

Nov 22, 2007, 16:57 GMT

Singapore - The environmental group Greenpeace said Thursday the leaders of 16 Asia-Pacific countries signed a 'weak and inadequate response' to the dire warnings on climate change.

The declaration inked at the East Asia Summit called for signatories to develop a more effective blueprint to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Greenpeace welcomed the summit's aim to ensure that a UN-backed meeting on global warming in Bali next month results in an effective, comprehensive and equitable international climate change arrangement.

Otherwise, the declaration 'appears to be reheated rhetoric,' the group said.

Red Constantino, Greenpeace International campaigner, said the document 'recognizes the danger posed to Asia by climate change and yet it endorses mere aspirational goals.'

These commit countries 'to do nothing in particular by no particular time, if they feel like it,' Constantino said in a statement.

'Worse, the declaration continues to promote the fantasy of clean coal and other false solutions such as nuclear energy,' he said.

The countries, including the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations and China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, pledged to reduce the harmful effects of climate change.

They also pledged to enhance regional cooperation in promoting the use of clean energy, and to encourage research to enhance energy efficiency.